Houston woman heads to prison for her role in ‘virtual...

1of30PHOTOS: Kidnapping scamYanette Rodriguez Acosta, 35, of Houston, is to be sentenced Thursday for duping dozens of parents across three states — including families in The Woodlands — into paying hefty ransoms to end the fake kidnapping of their children in Mexico in 2015.>>>Learn more about a 2015 kidnapping case that rocked Mexico ...Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

2of30A protester demonstrates outside Downing Street in central London on March 3, 2015 over the abduction of 43 students in Mexico over four months ago, on the first day of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's state visit to Britain. Mexico has faced international outrage and regular protests over the disappearance and alleged slaughter of 43 college students at the hands of a police-backed gang in September. The visit to Britain holds significant diplomatic importance for Pena Nieto, who is struggling with falling approval ratings and relentless drug violence at home. AFP PHOTO / JACK TAYLORJACK TAYLOR/AFP/Getty ImagesPhoto: JACK TAYLOR, AFP / Getty Images

3of30Protesters demonstrate outside Downing Street in central London on March 3, 2015 over the abduction of 43 students in Mexico over four months ago, on the first day of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's state visit to Britain. Mexico has faced international outrage and regular protests over the disappearance and alleged slaughter of 43 college students at the hands of a police-backed gang in September. The visit to Britain holds significant diplomatic importance for Pena Nieto, who is struggling with falling approval ratings and relentless drug violence at home. AFP PHOTO / JACK TAYLORJACK TAYLOR/AFP/Getty ImagesPhoto: JACK TAYLOR, AFP / Getty Images

4of30People take part in a march commemorating five months after the disappearance of 43 students from Ayotzinapa, on February 26, 2015, in Mexico City. The students went missing on September 26, in an apparent massacre by a police-backed gang that sparked nationwide protests and caused a crisis for President Enrique Pena Nieto. For now, only one of the students has been identified from charred remains, which leaves little hope of finding the other 42. The massacre would rank among the worst mass murders in a drug war that has killed more than 80,000 people and left 22,000 others missing since 2006 in Mexico. AFP PHOTO/OMAR TORRESOMAR TORRES/AFP/Getty ImagesPhoto: OMAR TORRES, AFP / Getty Images

5of30Relatives of the 43 missing students from Ayotzinapa hold their portraits during a march commemorating five months after their disappearance, on February 26, 2015, in Mexico City. The students went missing on September 26, in an apparent massacre by a police-backed gang that sparked nationwide protests and caused a crisis for President Enrique Pena Nieto. For now, only one of the students has been identified from charred remains, which leaves little hope of finding the other 42. The massacre would rank among the worst mass murders in a drug war that has killed more than 80,000 people and left 22,000 others missing since 2006 in Mexico. AFP PHOTO/OMAR TORRESOMAR TORRES/AFP/Getty ImagesPhoto: OMAR TORRES, AFP / Getty Images

6of30Relatives of the 43 missing students from Ayotzinapa hold their portraits during a march in February five months after their disappearance in Mexico City. The students went missing on Sept. 26, in an apparent massacre by a police-backed gang that sparked nationwide protests and caused a crisis for President Enrique Pena Nieto. For now, only one of the students has been identified from charred remains, which leaves little hope of finding the other 42. The massacre would rank among the worst mass murders in a drug war that has killed more than 80,000 people and left 22,000 others missing since 2006 in Mexico. AFP PHOTO/OMAR TORRESOMAR TORRES/AFP/Getty ImagesPhoto: OMAR TORRES, AFP / Getty Images

7of30Protesters wear face paint during a demonstration opposing the state visit to Britain of the President of Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto, opposite Downing Street on Whitehall, in London, Tuesday, March 3, 2015. Demonstrators displayed pictures and chanted the names of some of the 43 students who went missing on Sept. 26, 2014 from a rural teachers college in Guerrero state. (AP Photo/Tim Ireland)Photo: Tim Ireland, Associated Press

8of30Demonstrators shouts slogans as they carry posters that read in Spanish; "You took them alive, return them alive," in reference to the 43 missing students from a rural teachers college, during a march marking the fifth month since their disappearance, in Mexico City, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015. In late January the Mexican attorney general said that investigators were certain that the 43 college students were killed and incinerated after they were seized by police in southern Guerrero state. Relatives refuse to accept the government's version of what happened to their sons. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)Photo: Eduardo Verdugo, Associated Press

9of30A mural of La Santa Muerte, or Saint Death, decorates the wall of a community center in Colonias, Michoacan state, Mexico, where vigilantes met with the families of a shooting that took place in nearby Apatzingan, on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015. Confrontations in Apatzingan began when federal forces moved in to take control of city hall, which had been held for days by civilians whose demands and identities were unclear, according to Michoacan state Commissioner Alfredo Castillo. The second clash came when gunmen attacked soldiers who were transporting the seized vehicles to an impound lot, Castillo said. However, family members and witnesses tell a different story, one with a higher death toll. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)Photo: Rebecca Blackwell, Associated Press

10of30Esperanza Rivera, left, grieves with her daughter, Raquel Alvarado, for Alvarado's children, Erica Alvarado Rivera, 26, Alex Alvarado, 22, and Jose Angel Alvarado, 21, with the siblings' father, Pedro Alvarado, right, during the burial for the siblings in El Control, Mexico, where Pedro lives, on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2014. The siblings, U.S. citizens from Progreso, Texas, were found shot to death more than two weeks after they went missing from a restaurant near El Control. (AP Photo/The San Antonio Express-News, Lisa Krantz)Photo: Lisa Krantz, Associated Press

11of30Family and friends follow the vehicles carrying the caskets of Erica Alvarado Rivera, 26, Alex Alvarado, 22, and Jose Angel Alvarado, 21, during the procession from the funeral at Nuestra SeÐora del Carmen Chuch to the cemetery for their burial in El Control, Mexico on Sunday, November, 2, 2014. The siblings, U.S. citizens from Progreso, were found shot to death more than two weeks after they went missing from a restaurant near El Control.Photo: Lisa Krantz

12of30Esmeralda Alvarado, of Houston, right, grieves during the burial for her cousins, Erica Alvarado Rivera, 26, Alex Alvarado, 22, and Jose Angel Alvarado, 21, during their burial in El Control, Mexico on Sunday, November, 2, 2014. The siblings, U.S. citizens from Progreso, were found shot to death more than two weeks after they went missing from a restaurant near El Control.Photo: Lisa Krantz

13of30Juan Pablo Zapata grieves during the burial of his cousins, Erica Alvarado Rivera, 26, Alex Alvarado, 22, and Jose Angel Alvarado, 21, in El Control, Mexico on Sunday, November, 2, 2014. The siblings, U.S. citizens from Progreso, were found shot to death more than two weeks after they went missing from a restaurant near El Control. At right are the siblings' oldest brother, Pete Alvarado, and their father, Pedro Alvarado.Photo: Lisa Krantz

14of30FILE - In this July 3, 2014, file photo, state police stand inside a warehouse where a black cross covers a wall near blood stains on the ground, after a shootout between Mexican soldiers and alleged criminals on the outskirts of the village of San Pedro Limon, in Mexico state, Mexico. Officials said Sunday Nov. 1, 2014, that seven Mexican soldiers have been charged with crimes ranging from homicide to improper conduct in connection with the shooting deaths of suspected gang members at a rural warehouse on June 30. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)Photo: Rebecca Blackwell, Associated Press

15of30FILE - In this Oct. 22, 2014 file photo, Mexico's Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam, listens to a question during a news conference in Mexico City. The attorney general announced that a detained leader of Guerreros Unidos had revealed that Iguala Mayor Jose Luis Abarca ordered a police attack on Sept. 26 that resulted in six deaths and the disappearance of the 43 rural college students of Ayotzinapa. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)Photo: Marco Ugarte, Associated Press

16of30This Dec. 30, 2014 image released by Ad Purkh Kaur, the wife of Hari Simran Singh Khalsa, shows Hari Simran Singh Khalsa in his last selfie before going missing while hiking in rugged mountain terrain near the town of Tepoztlan, Mexico. A large search began on the day the 25-year-old northern Virginia man went missing after he went on a day hike wearing only a T-shirt and shorts and carrying little food and water. Ad Purkh Kaur last heard from her husband that afternoon in a text message saying he'd accidentally summitted another mountain and would be later than expected. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Ad Purkh Kaur)Photo: Hari Simran Singh Khalsa, Associated Press

17of30Esperanza Rivera, of Missouri, with Cassandra Gribble, grieves over the caskets holding three of her grandchildren Erica Alvarado Rivera, 26, Alex Alvarado, 22, and Jose Angel Alvarado, 21, at the home of their father, Pedro Alvarado, in El Control, Mexico on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2014. The siblings, U.S. citizens from Progreso, Texas, were found shot to death more than two weeks after they went missing from a restaurant near El Control. Alex is seen in the framed picture on the left and Erica is seen in the framed picture on the right. (AP Photo/The San Antonio Express-News, Lisa Krantz)Photo: Lisa Krantz, Associated Press

18of30Ignacio Treviño, a 22-year-old student, lays on the ground holding the name of a missing student during the Somos Ayotzinapa Demonstration at Our Lady of the Lake University last month in San Antonio. "If there is no justice elsewhere in the world, then there is no justice anywhere in the world," Treviño said. The rally and die-in involved students lying on the ground for five minutes, one minute for each of the five months that the 43 students had been missing in in Iguala, Mexico before being found deceased. All 43 were students at Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers' College of Ayotzinapa. A National Ayotzinapa Tour to bring awareness is expected to kick off in San Antonio next month.Photo: Carolyn Van Houten, San Antonio Express-News

19of30A woman holds a sign reading "Alive they were taken, alive we want them" during a march commemorating the disappearance five months ago of 43 students from Ayotzinapa in Mexico City. The students went missing on Sept. 26, in an apparent massacre by a police-backed gang that sparked nationwide protests and caused a crisis for President Enrique Pena Nieto. For now, only one of the students has been identified from charred remains, which leaves little hope of finding the other 42. The massacre would rank among the worst mass murders in a drug war that has killed more than 80,000 people and left 22,000 others missing since 2006 in Mexico. AFP PHOTO/OMAR TORRESOMAR TORRES/AFP/Getty ImagesPhoto: OMAR TORRES, AFP / Getty Images

20of30Dozens of students, professors and community members lay on the ground during the Somos Ayotzinapa Demonstration at Our Lady of the Lake University last month in San Antonio. The rally and die-in involved students lying on the ground for five minutes, one minute for each of the five months that the 43 students had been missing in Iguala, Mexico before being found deceased. All 43 were students at Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers' College of Ayotzinapa.Photo: Carolyn Van Houten, San Antonio Express-News

21of30A demonstrator wears a mask designed with a crown of crosses and the name "Ayotzinapa" forming part of the mouth, on behalf of the 43 missing students of a rural teachers college from Ayotzinapa, during a march marking the fifth month since their disappearance, in Mexico City, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015. In late January the Mexican attorney general said that investigators were certain that the 43 college students were killed and incinerated after they were seized by police in southern Guerrero state. Relatives refuse to accept the government's version of what happened to their sons. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)Photo: Eduardo Verdugo, Associated Press

22of30Brigida Chora Lopez, grandmother of Alexander Mora Venancio, one of the few missing students whose remains have been officially identified, at her home in El Pericon, in the Guerrero state of Mexico, Jan. 22, 2015. As election season begins in the country's most violent state, where 43 students from a teachers' college disappeared last September, order is fast disintegrating and a growing number of communities are taking control of their own security. (Adriana Zehbrauskas/The New York Times)Photo: ADRIANA ZEHBRAUSKAS, New York Times

23of30TOPSHOTS
A student is arrested by police during a protest in Mexico City on February 26, 2015, as they demand justice and clarification for the disappearance of 43 students from Ayotzinapa. Authorities in Mexico have stated with "legal certainty" that 43 students who went missing in September were murdered by hit men working for a drug gang, but parents of the students in a case that convulsed the nation and countries abroad insisted the case not be closed. The disappearance of the men -- all aspiring teachers attending classes at a training college in the southern state of Guerrero -- sparked nationwide protests and a crisis for the government of President Enrique Pena Nieto. AFP PHOTO/ Alfredo ESTRELLAALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP/Getty ImagesPhoto: ALFREDO ESTRELLA, AFP / Getty Images

24of30Masked protesters push a burning pickup truck toward the entrance of an army base in the city of Chilpancingo, Mexico, Monday, Jan. 12, 2015. The protest is part of ongoing unrest after 43 students disappeared on Sept. 26, 2014, allegedly taken by police and handed over to a criminal gang who then killed them, according to government officials investigating the case. (AP Photo/Alejandrino Gonzalez)Photo: Alejandrino Gonzalez, Associated Press

26of30A soldier stands guard outside Sentimientos de la Nacion kindergarten in Ciudad Renacimiento neighborhood in Acapulco, Mexico, during a security operation to protect teachers and students from gangs demanding extortion payments, on February 19, 2015. The army arrived here and more than 100 other schools in the Pacific resort's gang-ridden periphery three weeks ago to counter a growing rash of murders, kidnappings and extortion threats targeting teachers. The deployment of 1,000 troops to the schools and their surrounding neighborhoods was the only way to convince frightened teachers to return to the classrooms, ending a strike over the violence that had left 31,000 students homebound since November. AFP PHOTO / PEDRO PARDOPedro PARDO/AFP/Getty ImagesPhoto: PEDRO PARDO, AFP / Getty Images

27of30A soldier stands guard outside the Moises Guevara kindergarten in Ciudad Renacimiento neighborhood in Acapulco, Mexico, during a security operation to protect teachers and students from gangs demanding extortion payments, on February 19, 2015. The army arrived here and more than 100 other schools in the Pacific resort's gang-ridden periphery three weeks ago to counter a growing rash of murders, kidnappings and extortion threats targeting teachers. The deployment of 1,000 troops to the schools and their surrounding neighborhoods was the only way to convince frightened teachers to return to the classrooms, ending a strike over the violence that had left 31,000 students homebound since November. AFP PHOTO / PEDRO PARDOPedro PARDO/AFP/Getty ImagesPhoto: PEDRO PARDO, AFP / Getty Images

28of30A soldier stands guard outside Mariano Gonzalez Navarro school in El Crucero del Cayaco neighborhood in Acapulco, Mexico, during a security operation to protect teachers and students from gangs demanding extortion payments, on February 19, 2015. The army arrived here and more than 100 other schools in the Pacific resort's gang-ridden periphery three weeks ago to counter a growing rash of murders, kidnappings and extortion threats targeting teachers. The deployment of 1,000 troops to the schools and their surrounding neighborhoods was the only way to convince frightened teachers to return to the classrooms, ending a strike over the violence that had left 31,000 students homebound since November. AFP PHOTO / PEDRO PARDOPedro PARDO/AFP/Getty ImagesPhoto: PEDRO PARDO, AFP / Getty Images

29of30A soldier stands guard outside Mariano Gonzalez Navarro school in El Crucero del Cayaco neighborhood in Acapulco, Mexico, during a security operation to protect teachers and students from gangs demanding extortion payments, on February 19, 2015. The army arrived here and more than 100 other schools in the Pacific resort's gang-ridden periphery three weeks ago to counter a growing rash of murders, kidnappings and extortion threats targeting teachers. The deployment of 1,000 troops to the schools and their surrounding neighborhoods was the only way to convince frightened teachers to return to the classrooms, ending a strike over the violence that had left 31,000 students homebound since November. AFP PHOTO / PEDRO PARDOPedro PARDO/AFP/Getty ImagesPhoto: PEDRO PARDO, AFP / Getty Images

30of30A soldier stands guard outside Mariano Gonzalez Navarro school in El Crucero del Cayaco neighborhood in Acapulco, Mexico, during a security operation to protect teachers and students from gangs demanding extortion payments, on February 19, 2015. The army arrived here and more than 100 other schools in the Pacific resort's gang-ridden periphery three weeks ago to counter a growing rash of murders, kidnappings and extortion threats targeting teachers. The deployment of 1,000 troops to the schools and their surrounding neighborhoods was the only way to convince frightened teachers to return to the classrooms, ending a strike over the violence that had left 31,000 students homebound since November. AFP PHOTO / PEDRO PARDOPedro PARDO/AFP/Getty ImagesPhoto: PEDRO PARDO, AFP / Getty Images

Six parents testified anonymously in Houston federal court Thursday about receiving terrifying calls three years ago informing them their children, ranging from 13 to 40 years old, had been kidnapped. Each described haunting screams and pleas for help from a person they believed was their child, followed by threats from the caller saying he would kill or maim their family members if the parents did not deliver ransom payments immediately.

Calling the scheme “heartless” and “evil,” Chief U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal sentenced Yanette Rodriguez Acosta, 35, a courier for the fake kidnapping and extortion plot, to more than seven years in prison and three years of supervised release for collecting the ill-gotten funds. First, however, Acosta sat at the defense table and listened to victims, dabbing her eyes with a tissue.

“The sound was as if she was being beaten and she was screaming, ‘Daddy, daddy! Do whatever they ask you,’ and then I heard her being dragged off,” the retired officer, who appeared to be in his late 60s, testified.

Now Playing:

Three Mexican film students kidnapped last month were tortured, killed and dissolved in acid according to local officials in the Western state of Jalisco.
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel is believed to be behind the killings having confused the male students, all in their 20s, with rival gang members.
The case drew protests around the country, with people demanding justice and an end to the violence crippling Mexico in recent years.
The news came within 24 hours of a breakthrough in another high-profile case with police arresting a man allegedly involved in the murder of the award winning journalist Javier Valdez last year.
"Yesterday, we arrested in Tijuana, Baja California, 26-year-old Heriberto "N," who was identified as the alleged murderer of the journalist Javier Valdez Cardenas, who was killed on May 15, 2017 in Culiacan, Sinaloa," said National Security Commissioner Renato Sales at a press conference on Tuesday.
Valdez was known for his reporting on the drug trade in Mexico, which remains one of the world's most dangerous countries in for reporters. This year at least three journalists have been killed in the country while there were 12 cases last year.
More than 25,000 people were murdered last year in Mexico. Homicides hit their highest level in records going back 20 years.

Video: Euronews

Panicked, he said he repeatedly asked to speak to his daughter. The father recalled the man saying, “If you ask that one more time, we’re going to start cutting her up.”

He explained that on the police force he learned a warrior mentality, knowing he could die on the job any day.

“But the idea that I might be this helpless, unable to save one of my own children from something is … I can’t explain the terror that goes through your body,” he said.

Four mothers also shared harrowing stories about the elaborate hoax, which investigators believe was perpetrated by a “mastermind,” Ismael Brito Ramirez, from inside a Mexican prison, with the help of Acosta in Houston and others. In all, prosecutors identified about 80 people in Texas, California and Idaho, including families in The Woodlands and Kingwood, who were emotionally tortured into paying hefty sums to the fake kidnappers. Ramirez has been indicted on a number of serious felony counts.

One family who could not make it to court Thursday previously told the judge that when they could not find their son at the location the caller mentioned after the ordeal, they began checking inside dumpsters. Other witnesses said the money the defendants demanded was the least of it — they endured ongoing nightmares, fear and panic attacks from the lengthy calls.

Many of the victims said they remained on speakerphone with the caller for hours, while driving to banks, Western Union and MoneyGram offices or making cash drops at locations in Houston.

“There are some cases that involve conduct of such a nature that it is persuasive there is evil in the world,” Rosenthal said. She said her sentence would take into consideration the perpetrators’ “heartlessness, the willingness to use other people and through their fears profit with absolutely no consideration for the fear and the long-term effects of putting anyone through that experience.”

Such virtual kidnapping has become more widespread, according to Laura Eimiller, a spokesperson for the FBI in Los Angeles, which investigated the local scheme along with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations in Los Angeles and the Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputies.

“We’re seeing more and more people targeted by this scheme,” Eimiller said. “They are targeting people in communities they perceive to be wealthy.”

Upon the agreement of the attorneys, the judge sealed the courtroom, banning the public and news reporters from a portion of hearing touching on private or sensitive material.

Acosta, also known as Yanette Patino, was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshal. She pleaded guilty earlier this year to wire fraud and money laundering.

She admitted to picking up $28,000 in wire payments at various locations in the Houston area on Sept. 17, 2015, and Sept. 30, 2015. She kept some of the funds and wired the rest to contacts in Mexico, according to court documents.

A family in The Woodlands got a call in September 2015 from a Mexican phone number informing them their daughter “saw something she shouldn’t have” and demanding $15,000 for her release. Nearly two weeks later, another family in The Woodlands received a similar call from a person saying their daughter had witnessed a murder and demanded they pay $15,000.

Gabrielle Banks covers federal court for the Houston Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter and send her tips at gabrielle.banks@chron.com.

Gabrielle Banks covers federal court for the Houston Chronicle. She has been a criminal justice and legal affairs reporter for nearly two decades, including staff work at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Los Angeles Times, and freelance work for The New York Times, The Mercury News, Newsday and The Miami Herald. She has a graduate degree in journalism from Columbia University. Before her years as a reporter, she worked as a teacher, social worker and organizer.